Tag Archives: Europe

This not-so-courageous blogger has ventured into the lion’s den to visit her sister as the US presidential election approaches its climax.on decision day: November 8th. To date, I have not broadcast my views on this platform, not for lack of strident opinions, but for more prosaic reasons. I have kept my political expression limited to outbursts on my private Facebook page where I have shared articles and news flashes about this brawl, also know as the Clinton – Trump presidential race.

Every election cycle brings with it far too little concentration on policies and problem solving and far too much mudslinging and defamation of the opponent. However, this time the vitriol is beyond vicious, the stakes are infinitely higher.

The US is poised on the brink of a precipice. If it now takes a wrong step, all the principles this country was built on will be shattered as they plummet into an abyss deeper than the Grand Canyon.

When in the past has the GOP succeeded in nominating a candidate it cannot support, where elder Republican statesmen have declared they are voting for the Democratic opposition? This is unprecedented (No pun intended?).

No need for me to regurgitate all my reasons for opposing Trump and supporting Clinton. Thinking voters across the country – across the world! – have known for months exactly what these candidates represent. But with a choice between a seasoned, hard-working if flawed professional and a ranting, racist populist, well, there is just no contest.

I consider myself a student of history and have spent my entire adult life in Europe, where plenty of it happened in the 20th century. After World War II, the Americans were at the fore of rebuilding Germany into an exemplary democracy. The US, allied with Europe in NATO, stood as the guarantor of freedom in the face of the Soviet threat in the Cold War. Now, the great European democracies look west with horror in their eyes at the prospects of a Trump presidency, while Putin is rubbing his hands in glee.

My American friends and I in Germany have felt it necessary to apologize to the Germans and Brits we know for what has been going on in the US. It is as if their greatest mentor, their role model is outing itself as a charlatan.

Please, thinking fellow-Americans, get out there and vote for the only candidate who will keep America great – Hillary Rodham Clinton!